The court handed down a sentence to Kherson resident Svitlana Ashurkova, who assisted the occupying authorities in conducting a pseudo-referendum.
This is stated on the website of the Judiciary.
As the investigation established, in September 2022 Ashurkova agreed to join the so-called DVK (precinct election commission) and took part in conducting a pseudo-referendum in the village of Stanislav.
Thus, in the period from September 23 to 27, 2022, with a ballot box and ballots provided to her, accompanied by armed Russian servicemen, Ashurkova went around the yards of Stanislav residents and tried to involve them in voting on the accession of the Kherson region to the Russian Federation.
In August 2023, the woman was detained by Ukrainian law enforcement.
At the court hearing she admitted her guilt and said that during the occupation she, together with her husband, went from house to house with a ballot box. She did not receive any payment for conducting the referendum and did not know that this entailed criminal liability.
After examining the evidence, the court found her guilty of collaborationist activity (part 5 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). She was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment without confiscation of property.
The term of serving the sentence will be counted from the day the verdict takes legal effect.